The general preparation of silver nanowires (10-200 aspect ratio) is known. See, for example, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 60, Y. Xia, Y. Xiong, B. Lim, S. E. Skrabalak, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Such preparations typically employ Fe2+ or Cu2+ ions to “catalyze” the wire formation over other morphologies. The controlled preparation of silver nanowires having the desired lengths and widths, however, is not known. For example, the Fe2+ produces a wide variety of lengths or thicknesses and the Cu2+ produces wires that are too thick for many applications.
When iron or copper are used, they are typically provided as the metal halide salts FeCl2 or CuCl2. See, for example, B. Wiley et al., Nano Letters, 2004, 4, 1733-1739 and K. E. Korte et al., J. Mats. Chem., 2008, 18, 437. Other metal halide salts have been used in nanowire synthesis. See, for example, J. Jiu, K. Murai, D. Kim, K. Kim, K. Suganuma, Mat. Chem. & Phys., 2009, 114, 333, which refers to NaCl, CoCl2, CuCl2, NiCl2 and ZnCl2, and S. Nandikonda, “Microwave Assisted Synthesis of Silver Nanorods,” M.S. Thesis, Auburn University, Auburn, Ala., USA, Aug. 9, 2010, which refers to NaCl, KCl, MgCl2, CaCl2, MnCl2, CuCl2, and FeCl3, and Japanese patent application publication 2009-155674, which discloses SnCl4. See also S. Murali et al., Langmuir, 2010, 26(13), 11176-83; Z. C. Li et al., Micro & Nano Letters, 2011, 6(2), 90-93; and B. J. Wiley et al., Langmuir, 2005, 21, 8077. Japanese patent application publication 2009-155674 discloses SnCl4.
Korean patent publication KR2011128152A, published Nov. 28, 2011, discloses preparation of branched nanowires via vapor deposition methods. Korean patent publication KR2012005683A, published Jan. 17, 2012, discloses preparation of branched nanowires in the presence of branched metal nanoseeds.